There have been no deaths directly linked to COVID-19 vaccines so far in the Philippines, health authorities said Wednesday, May 26.

The National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee (NAEFIC) made this assurance amid the four million vaccine doses that were administered so far nationwide.

"Hanggang sa ngayon, wala pa kaming nakikitang masamang epekto ng bakuna except iyong tinatawag nating reaction, adverse (So far, we have not seen any bad effects of the vaccines, except on what we call adverse reactions)," said NAEFIC Chairperson Dr. Lulu Bravo.

Bravo said that there were some vaccinated individuals who died but noted that it was not due to COVID-19 vaccines.

She said that some of the deaths were because of heart attack, stroke, severe asthma, among others.

"Yung namatay, wala pa po kaming nakikitang malinaw na ebidensya na yan ay maire-relate sa bakuna... Hindi dahil sa COVID vaccine (With these deaths, we don't see any clear evidence that these are related to the vaccine...It's not due to COVID vaccines)," she added.

The same pronouncement was also made by Dr. Nina Gloriani, head of the Vaccine Expert Panel of the Department of Science and Technology.

“Kung meron serious adverse events, iimbestigahan ang mga iyon at hindi na-determine or walang causality. Hindi sya dahil sa bakuna but due to other conditions ng pasyente (If there are serious adverse events, they will be investigated and (the deaths so far), there are no causality. It's not because of the vaccine but due to other conditions of the patient),” she said.

Gloriani said that the vaccines that they were able to evaluate so far only have “mild to moderate side effects.”

“Maganda po ang safety profiles ng lahat ng vaccine na ito (The safety profiles of all these vaccines are good),” she said.

The government, meanwhile, is still facing a challenge in terms of enhancing the public’s trust on COVID-19 vaccines, said Dr. Anna Ong-Lim, member of the Department of Health’s (DOH) technical advisory group.

She assured that all COVID-19 vaccines available in the country were properly evaluated by the local health experts.

“So, the challenge for us is to communicate the information so people have a good basis when they decide to take up this vaccine and magkaroon din sila ng confidence na itong mga bakuna na ito ay dumaan sa masusi at mabusising pagsusuri ng iba’t-ibang expert group (The challenge for us is to communicate the information so people have a good basis when they decide to take up this vaccine and have confidence that these vaccines have gone through rigorous evaluation by the various expert groups),” she said.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already issued emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccines made by: Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac Biotech, Gamaleya, Janssen, Bharat Biotech, and Moderna.